Azimuth: The Elden Throne

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/At the same time in the corner of the Church.../

"... What? And you expect me to believe that?!" Misgurd said out loud as he screamed at Rodi, grabbing his shoulders as he spat on his face

"Bu-But that's the truth… Sir..."

'My ears are going to rupture...'

"Say that as you look into my eyes, punk!"

"I…"

...

"..."

Dale slowly approached the group, close enough to hear what they were talking about...

'Misgurd is one of those people that screams when they lose composure...'

(I'm like that, although it's been a long time since I did so)

"Hm?"

His actions were immediately noticed by the people, after all, many couldn't help but pay attention to him after what happened...

Misgurd immediately turned to face him and said:

"Dale, don't tell me you believed the nonsense he uttered?"

"You're smarter than that boy!"

"..."

'Of course, I didn't, but...'

Dale wanted to refuse...

"... Can you come up with a better solution?" Dale asked as he patted his shoulder

"..."

'He's a bit different... Is he planning something?'

"I already decided to accept their words."

"Now, it's up to you and the council to decide whether to allow them in or not, after all, the ones who take care of things here are you all, not me."

"You mean… But they've already caused us so much trouble!"

"That is true, however, sending them away won't change anything."

"This situation will one day repeat itself as long as what he said holds even if just a shred of truth."

"So I propose that, instead, how about we find a use for them?"

Misgurd thought for a moment before asking:

"They don't seem that capable though."

"I can see one or two who seem to have some sort of advanced Martial arts training, but they look weak, at least, too weak to cope with our needs."

"We don't need warriors that can't fight! We already have too many mouths to feed!"

"..."

'From Misgurd's perspective, that is true, these players are useless and weak.'

'Yet they can't die, nor do they need to eat and sleep… Meaning, they can do any sort of dangerous job... And they'll do it with pleasure as long as there is some sort of decent reward attached to it.'

'Because it's either that or they'll be forced to delete their characters... I don't care regardless.'

'But if I could, having them as manpower wouldn't be half bad if they're utilized well.'

Smiling, he said:

"We can easily find some work for them to do… Like cleaning up some pests…"

"Pests… You don't mean…" Misgurd replied as he thought deeply

"We can leave that discussion for later." Testros said as he interrupted their conversation, turning his attention to Dale

"First, Dale, is your shoulder ok?" He asked with a bit of concern

"My shoulder?"

'I... Completely forgot about this.'

'From their perspective, it has only been a few hours since I got hurt... But I think it's fully healed already.'

'It may be a bit too much if I showed them this... I'll have to think of a solution for that too.'

"It doesn't hurt anymore, but I'll still rest it until tomorrow." He said awkwardly as he moved his arm

Testros nodded and said with a smile:

"That's good, we wouldn't want to miss a day of training."

"But now… This situation is really serious."

"You may not understand but it has been decades since we had newcomers like this, you were already a surprise, much less an all-out attack."

"The village will become restless for a long time…"

He tapped on Dale's uninjured shoulder and said:

"What you did today… I won't ask for the specifics, but It was still very important to all of us. Thank you for your hard work as always."

"He's right, kid. Be proud." Misgurd added as he tapped his own chest with his fist <subtxt> . </subtxt>

[DING]

[Your continuous actions of self-sacrifice have deeply touched the villagers of Resko]

[Your Reputation has increased +10 = 161]

"It was nothing… To be honest they pissed me off…"

'I feel awful... For many reasons, the biggest one being all of these Reputation increases now that I lost my privilege...'

"BUWAHAHA! Remind me to not piss you off then!" Misgurd said with a smile as he laughed loudly

He turned around and looked at the messy Church.

"What a mess… Who'll clean this up?"

"Why are you asking? Didn't we just gain a massive workforce?" Dale asked with a smug smile as he looked at the working players

"OH yeah! I almost forgot about that…"

"Just have them work as Mercenary Recruits and the more outstanding ones we can have work on more complex and dangerous jobs, those that prove themselves to us can be entrusted with more complex jobs..."

"That is, if they are 'warriors', then they shouldn't refuse some coin… Even if we have nowhere to spend it on right now." Dale said as he turned to Misgurd

'As long as it's not me giving all the quests, then it should be fine. I still have no idea what I'll give Rodi as a reward for his Quest...'

'If I'm forced to hand all Quests, this method won't last for long.'

'I should focus on handing key Quests to control the direction of the players actions, if I'm forced to be the source of money and XP for the players, I'll be drained of everything that I have in no time.'

Hearing his words, Misgurd nodded.

"I can do that… But the amount of work…" He said with a frown as he looked at the number of people in the room

'Processing their papers will be a bother.'

"Then I guess that's done, as a first mission, let's have them clean the Church and the Village from the mess they caused as payment for us letting them off the hook." Dale said with a smile as he crossed his arms

'I'll have them clean the loot for me and fix the damages my AOE attack may have caused a perfect solution.'

'We can use their items for a multitude of things, we could give the weapons to the guards, though I think it would be better to give the metal to Barme so he can reforge them into a Higher Leveled item...'

'Though this is me assuming Barme is actually a High-Level smith, he could be a strong Villager, but a rather unskilled smith given his precarious conditions.'

'I'll hope for the best...'

"Indeed, everyone would have a heart attack to see the village like this when they come back…" Testros added as he saw the burn marks on the ground, shaking his head in frustration

"Aside from that, we need to talk about a few things." Dale added as his eyes sharpened

'It's time to deal with a few problems regarding the Church.'

"The very reason as to why this happens is because we have no one to take care of this place, meaning, we have no Priests nor Guards."

"There is no one to collect the offerings, nor to make sure everyone behaves. Not that we needed it, but the situation is different now."

"Because of this, they accumulated in the Altar to such a degree that I could barely even see the holy icon."

"So we need to find a way to store these safely without causing problems… Let's be honest, even if the Villagers want to donate and make offerings, someone has to clean it up afterward, we can't expect God to descend to collect them for us..." He said as he tried to be as respectful as possible

"Hm… You're right, we were attacked by bandits exactly because of this oversight, we can't be careless anymore." Testros said with a nod

His words made Dale scratch his chin in wonder...

"..."

'So those players are already seen as bandits huh… Not that I mind.'

'They'll have to work really really hard to go from bandits to anything else.'

"Aside from that, with the Altar broken, we need to make a replacement else we won't be able to open the entrance to the Catacombs anymore." Dale said in disappointment and with some urgency

'If something serious happens, we won't be able to deal with it, this has to be dealt as soon as possible...'

Testros shook his head, saying:

"That won't be a problem, the mechanism still works although it's now very awkward to use…"

"Still, you're right, we need to either replace it or fix it, both of which aren't things we can so easily do at the moment..."

"The wood and stone used to make the Altar were already very precious and they can't be found in the South, not only that, they were blessed by the Pope himself…"

Misgurd interrupted Testros to say:

"The Pope from several generations ago you mean, this is all rather old, or was…" Misgurd said as he exhaled some turbid air

"Hum..."

"So making a faithful replacement isn't going to be easy… Can't we just make a simple one for now?" Dale mumbled to himself as he closed his eyes

'Can't see it being possible for the Pope to appear with a brand new Altar anytime soon... Unless David blesses it, but what would be the purpose of him blessing it?'

'It could help with the Villager's morale I guess, which could directly correlate with the power of their prayers...'

"You're taking this too lightly, we're talking about the Altar where the Holy relic of the Church used to be displayed."

"This has to be an Altar worthy of the Pope, the voice of God to preach in."

"If we handle things badly, we could incur the wrath of God." Misgurd said deeply

"... I thought you weren't a believer." Dale said with a bit of irony

'Wrath of God huh... Well, I certainly wouldn't want to be on the receiving end of a purge Quest like them...'

"And I'm not, however, my daily activities include not profaning the Divines or making fun of them."

"Good enough." Dale replied as he shrugged

"So what now?" He asked

"We'll rally these people and have them go to the Mercenary branch where we can keep an eye on them until everyone comes back, something that should be happening soon due to the chaos caused by your 'little' display Dale." Testros said as he pointed at the players

"..."

Dale awkwardly looked away.

"Those that refuse will be sent to jail." Finished Testros in a serious tone

Hearing the word Jail for the first time, Dale asked:

"Is there a Jail in this place?"

"Yup, it isn't used though."

"You're wrong about that, we do use the Jail, but it's normally only to punish bratty kids that need something beyond just a beating." Misgurd said with a slightly cruel smile

"A day in that dark place alone is enough to make even the most disobedient brat behave..."

"It's right next to the Mayor's house and below the old Guard's barracks."

"I see." Dale replied with a look of enlightenment

'No wonder I didn't know, it's because I didn't go there yet.'

'The village of Resko can be said to be divided into 3 zones.'

'The covered zone, a place that has been covered by several decades worth of sand that was compacted due to the rain, making the place feel as if it was buried below a few meters of dirt.'

'Many of the houses there are completely buried while some others are only half covered, regardless, there is not a single place untouched by sand in there.'

'The reason for this is that due to the sharp decrease in the population over the years, there was no need nor a necessity to keep those areas of the City in good shape.'

'Following that, there is the living zone, its located right next to one of the main entrances of the City and is located around the edges of the main Central street leading to the Center of Resko.'

'There are many old buildings in here that are still used, such as Illia's Inn, Barme's workshop, Tina's home, the Mayor's house, the Mercenary Guild and so on...'

'However, most of the houses used by the Villagers were built in the past few decades to cope with the changes in the environment.'

'Most of those houses are built from wood and are at least 2 meters above ground, but it's true that they are quite rough looking since Resko lacks proper lumber and craftsmen to make everything prettier.'

'They look out of place and hopefully, the Villagers can return to the old stone houses in the future...'

'And finally, the 3rd zone, its a mix of several things, but I like to call it, The Old zone.'

'It's a zone consisting of the old buildings of Resko that were maintained over the years or were simply not buried in the sand due to chance...'

'Although, different from the previously mentioned places, they're still severely worn out.'

'Ironically, the buildings that were buried were the ones that were mostly preserved since they are now safe below the sands, while these ones remained outside, and after many years are now hanging on a thread.'

'These areas include places like the Center of Resko around the Mayor's home where an old fountain is located, some areas around the mercenary branch, the Street where Yumi's potion shop stays… Plus a few other things.'

'Because of how my priorities ended up presenting themselves, I didn't explore these places very well, focusing my attention mostly towards the Guild and completing my tasks…'

'Though in my defence, its been barely 3 days...'

...

As Dale thought, Misgurd and Testros discussed the situation.

And once he was done thinking, Dale said:

"Shall we proceed?"

They nodded.

Misgurd took a step forward and started to gather the players while Dale looked at the side and at the piles of loot.

/Grab.../

He grabbed a low-quality helmet and used it as a bucket, gathering the coins from the offerings and putting them near the Altar.

Once he was done, he inspected the items on the ground, and at first, he saw nothing interesting, these items were all normal items from the Tutorial and they would be mostly all about the same.

He did see a few interesting things though, and it was all of the pieces of the set he once sold, including a few rarer items he didn't expect to see there.

Though, he saw no 'Unique' items like the ones Jelly was supposed to get.

Regardless, he smiled.

'Now I have a reason to use my own armor as an NPC and show it to everyone else.'

It would indeed be very suspicious for an NPC to go around with player-specific gear, but since it's here for him then…

Apart from this, he saw nothing else worth his while.

However, they may be useless to him, but they could be very useful for the Village or in the hands of the players.

'I can use these as rewards for Quests, right?... Yeah!'

'These players are still Level 5 and below, so they will definitely need these… The quantity is also decent.'

'At the very least, this seems more profitable than trying to sell them in the Open market since most of my profit would be spent on getting access to it in the first place.'

'Money needs to flow…'

'Besides, Barme is a single person, he can only work so much, giving him 100 pounds of iron won't make him work faster, I can set aside a part of it to give away as Quest rewards.'

'The players may be useless for anything right now, but they are the perfect workforce for these heavy-hand jobs.'

'Although I'm a bit hesitant in using them to clear out the fields from the spiders, even if I were to stop them now, they would eventually hunt there.'

'After all, it was already proven that, if a player hunts a monster on a field, it will eventually respawn.... This was my biggest worry.'

'If the monsters respawn just like that, then the purpose of having the players clear the fields would be redundant.'

'I'll have to test everything and put up some more thought into all of this… Perhaps there is a way to bypass this mechanic...'

Dale raised his head, glaring at the people as they emptied the Church.

Without hesitation, he took a step forward…

"You'll leave just like that?" David said from behind him, startling Dale

"!"

Dale was interrupted by the talking golden head, what would it say after all that happened?

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Notes